The Grand Ducal collection, which built the foundation of today’s HLMD collection, also laid the foundation for the mineralogical collection. Based on the collection from his mother Karoline (1721 – 1774), Grand Duke Ludewig I built up his own collection. In the time from 1802 to 1811 the mineral collections from Baron von Hüpsch, from the mineralogist von Klippstein, from Bergrates Emmerling and from the mint master Fehr were acquired. After the Baron’s death in 1805, the remaining collection from Cologne was bequeathed to the Grand Ducal Museum.

With the acquisition of the collection from Paul Ruppenthal in 1995, the museum’s collection activities reached a climax. Due to a large number of scientific rarities, which are also aesthetic treasures and thus “jewels of nature”, this collection is of significant value.

As mining is terminated in the Odenwald and new material is scarcely accessible due to renaturation, the museum was obliged to obtain important and irreplaceable reference material.

Therefore, the extension of the historical regional collection started in 2002 with the acquisition of the collection Ecker. In 2004 the museum received the collection Theo Schmitt with 4,500 minerals as a donation. In 2010 the collection was extended by an additional purchase. Meanwhile the Odenwald collection almost tripled, comprising approximately 7,500 objects.

The latest acquisition in 2012 contained a micromount-collection from Reichenbach. Beside Nieder-Beerbach, Mackenheim and Auerbach, Reichenbach is the most noted mineral locality in the Odenwald. The collection consists of 900 mineral aggregates from more than 110 different minerals. Reichenbach is the site in the Odenwald which produced most of the type specimen (reichenbachite, petitjeanite, medenbachite, hentschelite and phosphogartellite).

In 2014 the mineral collection comprised about 33,000 minerals. The systematic section of the exhibition presents mineral from all over the world which were selected based on their features in colour, shape and rarity. The presentation follows mineralogical criteria such as the classification according to chemical composition. Nine different classes such as elements, sulphides or carbonates are differentiated. The regional section shows minerals from twelve Odenwald-locations.